There should be a name for that brand of SF where we’re thousands of years in the future, but the society is still just like middle-class America, with FTL ships and AIs. It’s not quotidian. Maybe it’s just lazy.
Peter F. Hamilton also writes in this style, but he does it with far more verve than McDevitt.
The underlying story is fun enough at first, centering around the search for a lost colony lost 6,000 years from the time of the story. But when we reach the end there’s a desperate attempt to lay on the sensawunda with a trowel, leading to a feeling of letdown.
I borrowed this book in a library, for which I am grateful. I would have been mad if I had paid for it.